Morning all,
47 degrees on site today. A hot wind too though not too dusty.
Even though the curfew has lifted, we decided to leave a bit later this morning just in case and arrived on site at 8:30.
Again, the guys were well into their work by then and our night shift had once again done a sterling job.
Unfortunately we discovered that the steel on a couple of the isolated pads had moved during the concrete pour.
One of them is only about 30mm out so we can deal with that but the other is over 100mm out so we’ve made them break out all the concrete and re-box and re-pour the whole thing.
We’ve also had words with the supervisors about checking, double checking and then checking some more before pours, during pours and immediately after pours to try and reduce the risk of this happening again.
We’ve also done a fair bit of concreting in the abattoir area now- see attached photo of a strip footing in the abattoir waiting to have the mushrooms put onto the re-bar.
We’ve done a total of around 8m3 poured today and 4m3 poured yesterday.
Pipe work is also going in the ground and we are basically ignoring the various errors on drawings and making it up as we go. As long as we have appropriate falls and all the sumps and gullies are in the right place the location of pipes doesn’t really matter too much so these are being moved around a bit to suit site conditions.
The city is now back to normal it seems. Whilst there is an increased military presence, it’s certainly not intrusive and we haven’t seen any violence or protesting.
There was a big demonstration by the new administration today in town with roads closed etc and a lot of people hanging around.
We went quite close to this on the way to our builders merchants and were told it is basically a celebration that Niger is on the path to democracy.
According to ADR they’ll be telling everyone how good they are for a few days yet, and will then get on with sorting things out.
All the ministers and officials are still in place as they were before the coup but this may change in time as mates are given jobs etc.
The people of Niger meanwhile carry on pretty much as before.
I’ve heard it from a number of the locals that Niger is not nearly as extreme as a lot of other states and that generally people are pretty relaxed and pacifistic here.
Of course the guys lying dead around the presidential palace might disagree, but there’s certainly no-one running around chopping off limbs or the army showing everyone how strong they are.
One of the numerous previous coups involved the instigators walking calmly in to the Palais de Congress and taking the President for a walk. He was asked to sign his resignation papers, which he duly did, and was then released to join the general public and the new administration took over.
Speaking of the builders merchants, I’ve finally managed to open an account after much pleading, grovelling and the usual 86 copies of all the paperwork.
I was that excited, I bought a hammer drill for 675,000FCFA.
On the way back we got into the usual gridlock caused by some numpty stopping in the middle of the road while others were trying to pass. This was solved by the guy behind him, in a land- cruiser, firstly leaning on the horn repeatedly, and then when the guy didn’t move he just backed up a bit and then went forward ramming him out of the way.
I was most impressed with this decisive action and may need to fit some bars to the front of the Subaru when I get home so I can do the same.
I thought I’d also give you an idea of a standard day here;
10am wake up
10:15 go to pub
10:16 first beer
12:00 switch to spirits
12:10 packet of nuts for lunch
20:47 remind Dave that the girl he is chatting up isn’t in contention for the title of Miss World
23:00 come home, throw up in garden, fall asleep in front of TV
Seriously though;
6am wake up, check emails and reply. Make calls/Skype people in NZ
7am showers then brekkie watching Euronews
7:30 leave for site.
Our drive takes us through town where we see incredible sights every day. Cows on the roofs of vans/busses, taxis with the boot open piled high with sheep carcasses, guys on mopeds with 3 kids up front and a metre high pile of wood on the back to mention just a few.
7:50 arrive at site. Stand on the gate to encourage slackers and re-train the guards on gate procedure. We then start our site day and work till lunchtime with the first hour or so sorting out yesterdays problems.
It was quite cool in the mornings so not unpleasant to be outside, but it’s now heating up even first thing.
Lunch is normally a baguette (French stick) with cheese/ham/salami or tuna in a can. We’ve also started having a bit of fruit on site too when I remember to buy it.
Afternoons will be really hot for everyone but especially Dave, Stan and Lindsay who are outside for most of the day, coming in only for lunch, drinks, and to occasionally complain about the lack of tools/quality of drawings/the skills (or lack thereof) of our staff etc etc.
Actually, that’s unfair.
Its only really Stan who complains, the other guys have accepted that we work with what we’ve got!
After lunch the wind often picks up and sandblasts everyone and everything for a few hours.
Sometime between 17:30-19:00, we’ll pile into the land cruiser and go home, often having to stop at the supermarket/market.
More interesting driving antics on the way home.
Dave and I now have evening French lessons, on the days when there isn’t a coup going on obviously, so the guys drop us off on the way home on those nights.
Stan and Lindsay are then dropped off at their place for a shower before walking round to villa 1 for dinner
If there’s time on days when we’re not at French, Dave and I will go for a bike ride/run on our cheap exercise gear followed by a swim. Ralph will probably also have a swim.
Stan and Lindsay arrive and we have diner around 19:30-20:30.
If Dave and I are on late French lessons, we’ll eat when we get home at about 21:30
S&L walk home and we all do more emailing and Skyping etc before an earliysh night.
We do this 5 days a week and also work Saturdays but normally go home around 3pm, although today we needed to get through some stuff so we will leave around 18:30.
Sundays are usually a rest day although tomorrow we’ll be working as Stan and Lindsay need to catch up with some pipe laying and Ralph has some systems work he needs to do before we let him get on the plane at 02:50 on Monday morning.
It’s a thrilling life we lead here I can tell you.
I only put the last bit in because we need to really make it clear to anyone who is coming here what the reality is.
The hours are long, it is bloody hot, and getting hotter and they will be seriously frustrated by a huge amount of issues, they won’t have the right/decent tools, they can’t nip down and hire/buy much in the way of decent gear.
They’ll be living and working with the same people 24 hours a day which can also bring its challenges.
They’ll see poverty like most of us simply can’t imagine, there is rubbish everywhere (apart from our site obviously) and the drivers are almost as bad here as they are in NZ.
They’ll be sandblasted on site, the internet and phones drop out regularly making it hard to contact home sometimes, the power also cuts out randomly. We regularly hear of people calling us here and getting the ringing tone but the phones here remain silent.
The landline and mobile systems here will drive people nuts at times.
They’ll sleep on a bed made of foam, their white clothes will be brown from the first time they wash them because the tap water is out of the river.
On top of that, they’ll be eating foreign(ish) food, most of the locals won’t understand a word they’re saying and those who can understand English often chose to keep this quiet.
They’ll be drinking bottled water (occasionally with grenadine cordial if we let them), and they will sweat like pigs and get bitten by mossies.
Because of the intense heat, they’ll be pretty knackered most of the time.
Anything you think is going to be easy turns out to be a complete pain in the arse, and people will not tell you the truth half the time- just what they think you want to hear.
As we’ve discovered this week, the political situation is also unstable and we never know what’s going to happen next.
The bureaucracy is unimaginable and the amount of paperwork and administration we end up doing defies belief.
Any trip into town will involve beggars, being hassled to buy stuff (normally fruit, veg or jewellery but also other tourist tatt and, disturbingly, women and children on occasion) and other more general requests for money/bribes/gifts.
And worst of all, the guys have to put up with me for hours on end.
Saying all that, there is never a dull moment, it’s a huge challenge that we’re dealing with, we’re meeting some great people (and a few twats obviously), we’re seeing things that we would not have believed possible and we are experiencing a culture and way of life unlike anything most of us have experienced before.
On top of that we’re doing something that not too many other NZ companies are doing.
It is an adventure.
And we have quite a few laughs too.
Often at each other’s expense.
I speak for myself here, but even with all the frustrations, I’m enjoying myself immensely.
Apart from the morning when the toilet wouldn’t flush.
But that’s another story...
Apologies for waffling on but as you know by now, it’s your own fault for not interrupting.
Au revoir,
me
